1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to entertainment electronics and, more particularly, to a system and method for a stand-alone television to capture selected frames, store the frames, and present selected frames from storage.
2. Description of the Related Art
Television has proven to be one of the best means of broadcasting information and entertainment to every cross-section of the public. People watch news, sports, movies, shows, and advertisements on TV. They also play video games, participate in karaoke, listen to music or concerts, and even browse the Internet through their TV sets. The variety of content that can be displayed is practically unlimited.
However, almost everyone who has a TV set has encountered the following problem. Conventional TV sets have no memory of the picture content displayed on the screen. Therefore, it is not unusual for viewers to miss some important or desirable information that was briefly flashed on the screen, or shown when the viewer was not paying full attention. For example, it is very easy to miss the phone number or store locations shown in a TV advertisement, as a viewer is unlikely to memorize or write down every detail. Neither is it easy to memorize the statistics of a football team. Likewise, it is also not possible to copy down the stock performance plot of a hot company shown on CNBC, or memorize the 10-day weather forecast when the viewer is planning a camping plan.
If the screen is used as a video game monitor, it would be desirable for some children, who achieved a super score in a video game for example, to show the final screen or score to friends at a later date. It might also be desirable for parents to display a kid's school lunch menu on TV screen when they need it.
Computer-based video capture and processing techniques have been developed for use in conjunction with television sets. However, many viewers prefer not to clutter their entertainment center with computer equipment. Besides, many viewers find the computer boot-up and the operation of applications cumbersome. Recording media, such as a VCR can be connected to the TV to record content. However, this recording equipment is not really designed to clearly display a single frame. It can be cumbersome to find the desired frame, and the frame cannot always be clearly seen. Some stand-alone televisions have been developed systems that incorporate a still-frame function, however, this function itself does not support multiple frame storage and redisplay.
FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a television (TV) receiving system (prior art). A viewer can use the remote control, through an infrared (IR) transmitter/receiver or radio frequency (RF) transmitter/receiver (not shown) to send control commands to the central processing unit (CPU) System. The CPU controls the TV receiver and the display unit accordingly. The display unit delivers the picture (and audio) to the viewer.
It would be advantageous if a stand-alone television could store a plurality of selected frames in a memory.
It would be advantageous if the frames stored by above-mentioned television could be displayed.
It would be advantageous if the capture, store, retrieve, and display frame operations could be preformed using simple and intuitive commands from a television remote control.